Cosentry, a provider of data center services, was facing increasing network failures from its existing load balancers that impacted its ability to guarantee 100% uptime for customers and created support issues. It implemented Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager (vTM) software-based load balancing solution on Intel servers. This provided more reliable load balancing with less failures, allowed flexible scaling, and enabled intelligent traffic management through scripting. It also shifted costs from CapEx to OpEx. With Brocade vTM, Cosentry can now better support customers' applications and discuss helping them grow, improving support for its own growth.

1. SUCCESS STORY
Cosentry
It was the company’s “customer first”
approach that prompted a reevaluation
of its existing network load balancers.
Increasing failures were impacting
Cosentry’s ability to deliver on its 100
percent uptime guarantee, in addition
to creating support and troubleshooting
issues as these failures became more
time-consuming and resource-intensive.
Also, the existing solution was hardware-
based, making it a CapEx spend. If
Cosentry moved to a software-based
solution, it could potentially shift this
cost to an OpEx spend and enable faster
provisioning, providing a win-win for both
the company and its customers.
Cosentry Keeps Customers’ Critical Apps Up and Running
with New ADC Solution
With nine data centers throughout the Midwestern United States,
Cosentry provides a full range of solutions that solve mission-critical IT
infrastructure challenges. The company’s “customer first” culture—along
with two decades of providing data center services that include colocation,
cloud services, managed hosting, managed services, and Infrastructure
as a Service (IaaS) solutions—has created trusted business partnerships
with customers seeking an extension of their internal IT team. This
collaborative approach, fueled by a commitment to helping customers
achieve strategic business goals, has accelerated the company’s growth
and garnered Cosentry a spot on the list of Inc. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest
Growing Companies, eight years in a row.
“Unparalleled” Reliability, Ease of
Use Meet Requirements
When evaluating new technology,
Cosentry first puts it to the test in its own
environment. Brocade®
Virtual Traffic
Manager (vTM) offered a software-based
option that was easy to use and reliable,
while providing a level of intelligence
previously unavailable in the company’s
existing load balancers. With Brocade
vTM in place for testing, the team set
about creating the most extreme use
conditions, and each time the solution
passed with flying colors.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Brocade transforms data center
networking with open, virtual, and
automated solutions that empower
organizations to maximize their
investments for the New IP
Challenge
Eliminate network failures that impact
the company’s ability to deliver on its
100 percent uptime guarantee and cause
support issues
Solution
Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager and
Brocade Services Director on common
off-the-shelf servers based on Intel x86
architectures
Results
••Increased network reliability, minimizing
support requirements and enabling
Cosentry to deliver on its 100 percent
uptime guarantee
••Allowed greater flexibility with “pay as
you grow” pricing and the ability to scale
up and down as needed
••Enabled more intelligent design for
customers, thanks to easier and simpler
traffic scripting
••Moved load balancing to a software-
based solution, enabling more intelligent
decisions and a shift from CapEx to
OpEx spending

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“Industry-proven supportability and
stability were our primary concerns
when considering a new solution,”
explains Josh Allen, Web Operations
Infrastructure Engineer at Cosentry. “As
we evaluated Brocade Virtual Traffic
Manager, it became clear that the easy-
to-use interface would greatly improve
our team’s ability to support customers,
and testing proved that the reliability was
unparalleled—we couldn’t break it.”
More Intelligence and Greater
Flexibility Bring Opportunity
The engineering team also recognized
that having the ability to intelligently
support its customers’ Web-based
services would yield significant benefits.
Easier and simpler traffic scripting enables
more intelligent design for customers,
which can open the door to develop
more advanced applications. The built-in
Brocade TrafficScript software controls
how individual requests are optimized,
routed, and transformed.
“We never know what a customer may
want to implement next, but we know with
TrafficScript we are ready for any future
implementation,” says Allen.
Moving from a hardware- to a software-
based virtual platform is also a boon for
Cosentry because, in addition to enabling
more intelligent decisions, it provides
the flexibility to move from one host to
another, for an added layer of redundancy.
With Brocade Services Director,
each application is given a dedicated
application delivery controller instance
in a high-density, multitenant platform.
Detailed usage reporting supports
a usage-based model that enables
Cosentry to offer customers “pay as you
grow” pricing and the ability to scale up
and down as needed. The ability to be
more nimble, coupled with the ability to bill
monthly for managed services based on
usage, creates greater flexibility for both
Cosentry and its customers.
“The Brocade solution has enabled
us to have conversations we couldn’t
have before because our support for
applications is performing at the highest
levels, and our pricing model supports
a forward-looking mindset,” notes Allen.
“Now we are talking with customers
about how we can help them grow their
businesses, and in return, that helps us
grow ours.”
Whether a customer is virtualizing,
consolidating, optimizing, or fully
outsourcing data center and IT
infrastructure to Cosentry, the company
can confidently support the demands
that come with Web and application
requirements. Brocade vTM has
provided a high-performance solution
that is reliable, scalable, and aligned with
Cosentry’s business.
“The Brocade solution doesn’t just
minimize support requirements and
enable us to deliver on our 100 percent
uptime guarantee, it keeps our customers’
mission-critical applications up and
running,” concludes Allen. “At the end of
the day, that’s what it’s all about.”
For more information, visit
www.brocade.com.
WHY BROCADE
As we evaluated Brocade Virtual
Traffic Manager, it became clear that
the easy-to-use interface would greatly
improve our team’s ability to support
customers, and testing proved that the
reliability was unparalleled—we
couldn’t break it.
— Josh Allen, Web Operations Infrastructure
Engineer, Cosentry